Undocumented Georgians, Racial Justice Leaders and LGBT Leaders Demand an Immediate End to Detentions and Deportations

Undocumented Georgians, Racial Justice Leaders and LGBT Leaders Demand an Immediate End to Detentions and Deportations

What: Rally & Press Conference

When: 10:30am Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Where: 180 Spring St, Atlanta, GA

Who: Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Southerners on New Ground (SONG), members of comities poplars from across the state, Project South, other supporters

Background: The Obama Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have deported 2.2 million people in the last four years, and thousands more are sitting in overcrowded detention centers right now separated from their families and their communities. The South is feeling the increase and impact of violent economic and immigration policies, from NAFTA to Arizona copy-cat legislation HB87 that passed in Georgia in 2011.

Despite popular rhetoric of politicians, these policies and enforced action have contributed to the chaos and suffering of thousands of families, and the undermining of safety and economic security. Immigrant people wash our dishes, pick our vegetables and build our houses, yet regular ICE invasions at home, work, and places of worship have forced many of us to live in fear.

Since 1993, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) has been committed to the lives of LGBTQ people, immigrants, the poor, and people of color in the South. Witness to the destruction Obama’s immigration policies have caused this region, we say, NOT 1 MORE. More than 267,000 of the nation’s 1 million out LGBTQ immigrants are undocumented. We call on President Obama to end the violent attacks on all of our communities immediately by using his power to halt racial profiling, deportations, detentions, and the tearing apart of families.

“So many LGBTQ people, immigrants and people of color live in fear and under the threat of violence every day in the South. We are willing to put our LGBTQ bodies on the line to change our collective destiny” – Caitlin Breedlove, SONG Co-Director

“Residents of Georgia have been terrorized by the unjust practices of ICE and Police Ice Collaborations through programs like 287g and the Passing of House Bill 87 in 2011 which legalize racial profiling and line the pockets of corporations and wealthy business interests, profiting off the suffering of our communities. While millions of our brothers and sisters languish in cages every day we say NOT 1 MORE.” – Paulina Helm-Hernandez